re: #403 Thanos

No, I don’t. At some point in the further future we will need ethanol and biofuel derivative sources for some things. Aerospace comes to mind.

If Energy’s nearly too cheap to meter and oil and gas very scare, then biological means to gain those portable fuels makes sense even if it’s a “more energy in than you get out” equation.

Should we be replacing oil and gas with it in cars? Not really, but we might need to for a while in the short term until other techs improve. Burning hydrocarbons for fuel is less desirable than nuclear, hydro, wind, solar, geothermal, but… if it’s what you have to do, then it’s what you have to do. The ugliest power source is coal, but it’s still what we have to do for now.

I just mean that the economics of ethanol in the US, based on current crops - doesn’t work. Doesn’t work at all, with oil below about $70/barrel. Ethanol is working great in Brazil. We could probably import ethanol from Brazil and turn a profit on it, if the politicians would step aside. It will probably work in the US at some point, with better crops, biotech refiners, some more *system* level innovations.